lingui5t reviewed Platonic ethics, old and new by Julia Annas (Cornell studies in classical philology ;)
Review of 'Platonic ethics, old and new' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Didn't get much out of it. The basic thesis is that our apparently unquestioned developmental framework (the idea from Victorian times that the explanation for wide variation in Plato's ideas is that he grew over time and ploddingly developed and cemented them) should go unquestioned no longer, and the study of Platonic philosophy needs to consult the views of the ancients and Platonists to better understand Plato (with the idea that their view on his unitary vision or utter lack thereof is relevant).
Overall one comes away from this book feeling that Plato didn't believe anything resolutely and hence, at least for me, that he isn't all that important qua himself as much as he is important because of his influence through history (much like Keirkegaard, whose biography I recently finished and came away both (1) respecting the influence he has had on philosophers I see as more important and …
Didn't get much out of it. The basic thesis is that our apparently unquestioned developmental framework (the idea from Victorian times that the explanation for wide variation in Plato's ideas is that he grew over time and ploddingly developed and cemented them) should go unquestioned no longer, and the study of Platonic philosophy needs to consult the views of the ancients and Platonists to better understand Plato (with the idea that their view on his unitary vision or utter lack thereof is relevant).
Overall one comes away from this book feeling that Plato didn't believe anything resolutely and hence, at least for me, that he isn't all that important qua himself as much as he is important because of his influence through history (much like Keirkegaard, whose biography I recently finished and came away both (1) respecting the influence he has had on philosophers I see as more important and (2) wanting to punch the man himself in the face).
The scholarly "need" to make Plato say something coherent, when he really doesn't, is not driven by a quest for truth, as much as by a desire to make the millennia of lionization of Plato makes sense -- let us just conclude, less gracelessly, that it doesn't make sense.